Jewish Christian Muslim Conference
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
“Use and abuse of Religious language” was the topic of the 36th Jewish Christian Muslim conference, held in Wuppertal, Germany. Over 70 participants from 6 countries, including staff and students from Leo Baeck College, took part in the week long conference.The three speakers from each of the Abrahamic faiths tackled the subject from their own perspective:
Reverend Ruth Scott (Christian) described Christian approaches to talking about God and Jesus and coined the phrase: “theology of abusive power not inclusive love” as a way to explain some Christians’ attitude to God and the use of the related language, vis-à-vis the other religions.
Rabbi Colin Eimer (Jewish) referred to the Jewish religious texts and the problematic issues they raised, including chosenness, names of God etc.
Ahmad Achtar (Muslim) chose to talk about “transcending Anthropomorphism in Judaism and Islam” and outlined the anthropomorphism present in Judaism and Islam, in particular within the philosophy of Saadia Gaon and Abd al-Jabbar’s approaches.
One participant commented that the conference has created “our own interfaith Utopia, communing and sharing in this vital and invaluable learning about the others’ faiths".
The annual conference enthused a new generation of participants who felt that they wished to carry on the dialogue once they got back to their respective communities and that was one of the best indications that the conference was successful.
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